AP

ABC News will host an hour-long special on health care reform in the U.S. next Wednesday from the White House East Room -- a move that ABC is defending but critics are calling a surrender to the Obama administration's effort to control the debate.

The prime time special called "Questions for the President: Prescription for America" by ABC News will be a nationally televised event during which President Obama will answer questions presented by audience members selected by ABC News.

But critics of Obama's health care reform are asking that they be allowed to voice their side of the national debate.

"In the absence of opposition, I am concerned this event will become a glorified infomercial to promote the Democrat agenda... President Obama does not hold a monopoly on health care reform ideas or on free airtime," Ken McKay, chief of staff for the Republican National Committee, wrote in a letter to ABC News President David Westin.

Former ABC News correspondent Linda Douglass is currently the Director of Communications for the Obama White House Office of Health Reform.

What do you think? Is ABC News compromising their journalistic integrity?